Who are the potential candidates for the CC judges?

The newspaper "Zhoghout" writes: "The President of the National Assembly, Ararat Mirzoyan, finally signed the law on amendments and supplements to the law on the Constitutional Court, adopted by Parliament on June 30. It has already been published in the official bulletin and has come into force since yesterday.

Accordingly, the new amendments will address the pension issues of Alvina Gyulumyan, Felix Tokhyan, and Hrant Nazaryan, who have served in the Constitutional Court for 12 years. Earlier, constitutional amendments had also come into force.

Thus, within two months, constitutional bodies must present their candidates in order: first the Government, then the National Assembly, and then the General Assembly of Judges. After the National Assembly elects members of the CC, the judges must elect the President of the CC from among themselves, while Ashot Khachatryan, as the oldest judge, has temporarily taken on the duties of the president of the Supreme Court.

Nominations for the three vacant positions will begin on June 27, with candidates being successively nominated by the Government, the President, and the General Assembly of Judges. Former Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan and former Human Rights Defender Karen Andreasyan are being circulated as potential candidates, while the General Assembly of Judges will propose the candidacy of Liana Sahakyan.

However, it should be noted that the judges whose powers have been terminated previously stated that their powers were terminated in violation of the law. This was the reason they submitted a request to the European Court to suspend the constitutional amendments until the examination of their violated rights was completed. The European Court, however, rejected this request.

Nonetheless, the judges are preparing to submit their main complaint to the Strasbourg court by August 28." For more details, refer to today’s edition of the newspaper.